CONFERENCE
Reflections on AOC 2023
Our ninth annual Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference is in the books, and what an amazing couple of days it was!
Our world-class lineup of speakers blew the attendees away, earning rave reviews across the board for providing fascinating insights and actionable tactics. The diverse range of topics allowed marketers to expand their skill sets. From local SEO to neuromarketing to AI, attendees soaked up the latest strategies.
But don’t take our word for it! Here are just a few responses from our post-event survey:
- “The conference inspired and uplifted me! A truly remarkable and insightful conference in the heart of downtown Portland.” – Kelsey Munksgaard
- “The speakers were terrific and the variety of content was really diverse.” – Sara Pinto
- “The conference was great – I learned so much! I really liked how the schedule was built this year with various topics on one day and then the deep dive the next.” – Anonymous
- “This conference was my first event post-Covid and it was such a nice (inspiring!) reminder that going to an in-person event can fast track about 1-2 years of articles/webinars/tweets etc.” – Adam Barker
WHY ATTEND IN 2024
1 CONNECT
Take advantage of a full day of networking opportunities. Make connections with local professionals and get face time with the experts on stage. Every year we see relationships forged that can change the course of your business and your career!
2 LEARN
Discover the latest strategies for SEO, social media, analytics, and more. At AOC you’ll discover what you need to know to succeed today, and what you should be paying attention to prepare you for tomorrow.
3 GROW
Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll be exposed to new ideas that will fuel your professional growth. You’ll leave with actionable items that will help your company drive more leads and sales online.
4 PLAN AHEAD
While we haven’t yet announced the date for 2024, you can be sure that it’s definitely happening! If you’re interested in attending or learning more, sign up for our email newsletter today and take advantage of the best prices and earliest bird discounts!
THE LOCATION
AURA – PORTLAND, MAINE
“This had to be the coolest conference venue I’ve ever seen (in the US, anyway). Stellar location, incredibly well-organized event, ridiculously killer branding, and a crazy good lineup of speakers. Y’all absolutely rocked it.” – Greg Gifford
2023 AGENDA
OCTOBER 4, 2023
| 7:30 | Registration & Breakfast |
| 8:30 | Opening Remarks |
| 8:45 | Rich Brooks – The Remarkability Formula |
| 9:30 | Greg Gifford – Local SEO |
| 10:10 | Break |
| 10:25 | Amanda Robinson – FB Ads |
| 11:10 | Nancy Harhut – Neuromarketing Secrets |
| 11:50 | Lunch Break |
| 1:05 | Jen Watson – Social Media Strategy |
| 1:50 | Atiba de Souza – Video SEO |
| 2:30 | Break |
| 2:45 | Brooke Osmundson – Paid Search |
| 3:30 | Rebecca Emery – AI and Marketing |
| 4:15 | Chris Mercer – GA4 and Measurement |
| 5:00 | Networking & Cocktails |
SPEAKERS
Your ads are great. Your audiences are dialed in. But it seems like no matter what you do your Facebook and Instagram ads aren’t producing results. Find out what has changed in 2023 and how to kick your strategy into line with current platform changes. Learn from a Meta Certified Lead Trainer who has taught hundreds of businesses how to harness the power of their unique ads strategy.
Once upon a time having a website was a differentiator. Once upon a time, SEO, social media, or email marketing was enough to set you apart from the crowd. But now, every channel, every feed, and every inbox is clogged with competing messages and offers.
So how do you stand out?
In this presentation, you’ll discover the framework to identify and name what makes your company, your brand, or yourself, remarkable. How to attract and engage your ideal customers, how to create high barriers to competition, and how to communicate your remarkability through today’s most powerful channels.
Every day behavioral scientists uncover new information that confirms people don’t really think about what they do. Instead, they conserve mental energy and react automatically — relying on hard-wired decision defaults that influence everything from what they read … to whom they trust … to when they buy.
If you want your marketing messages to persuade people to act, you need to know how to trigger these decision defaults. And you want easy, effective ways to do that.
In this example-jammed presentation, you’ll discover the decision-making shortcuts all humans have, and how you can use them to make sure your marketing messages generate leads. Don’t risk being ignored, overlooked, or forgotten. Gain your competitive advantage by writing to hack people’s brains.
Let’s face it…. For most marketers, tools like Google Analytics 4 are both amazing and overwhelming. In this session you’ll discover 5 simple tricks that not only make GA4 easier to use, they’ll help you get more insights from your reports
Hearing crickets on your YouTube channel, even though you did exactly what the “experts” recommended? We get it. We did, too. But here’s the critical last step (ten minutes or less!) that exponentially increased traffic and catapulted our videos into dominating Page 1 on Google.
- Create content that immerses customers in your brand while telling your company story
- Up-cycle content that can inspire for months
- Implement productivity hacks that will save mountains of time
- Use new tips and tools to amp up your social media strategy
Google uses a different algorithm to display localized search results, but marketers and business owners typically use traditional SEO tactics.
In this action-packed, fast-paced session, Greg will explain how Local SEO is different from traditional SEO, outlining which signals influence local search visibility — and he’ll outline exactly how to optimize each signal.
You’ll learn about website content and optimization, local link building, customer reviews, and Google Business Profiles. You’ll leave with a detailed playbook that outlines specific strategies and tactics that will help you dominate local search results in 2024 and beyond.
Whether you’re just getting started or are already using AI in your marketing workflow, this session will help you level up your AI skills to help you accomplish more in less time.
In this session you’ll learn more about the four key areas of AI for marketers:
- Prompts
- Automations
- Acceleration, and
- Pitfalls
You’ll see the latest AI tools in action, discover their strengths and limitations, and get a better understanding of how you can begin harnessing the power of AI today in your marketing campaigns.
Google and Microsoft offer a vast array of advanced targeting options for every campaign type. But with privacy regulations becoming stricter every day, it’s time to get creative to effectively target your core audience. Learn how to master the art of crafting complex audiences to uplevel your PPC campaign performance, both strategically and tactically.
DEEP DIVE WORKSHOPS
The excitement, discovery, and networking didn’t stop at the end of the conference, either. Those looking to really take their marketing skills to the next level and grow their businesses took advantage of our Deep Dive Workshops the following day.
Six half-day, hands-on, interactive sessions led by some of today’s leading digital marketers proved to be the highlight of many people’s AOC 2023 experience, raving about how valuable this Day 2 content actually was:
- “The workshops were so valuable. It was great to have the larger presentations but expanding further in the workshop was such a bonus. I wish I had been able to do all of the ones available.” – Allie Floyd
- “I signed up for her workshop after seeing her speak – really well done and super interesting and valuable!” – Autumn Wilson on Brooke Osmundson
- “I was completely blown away by every aspect of this event!! Starting right from Rich’s intro session all the way through day one and day two workshops, every moment was a completely inspiring and informative experience.” – Ken Brill
Nuts and Bolts of Video SEO
ATIBA DE SOUZA
Youtube, TikTok, Google…YES. We will cover SEO on all the platforms AND show you how to get your videos ranked on Page 1 of Google.
How to Crush Your Instagram Strategy
JENN HERMAN
Join globally recognized Instagram expert, Jenn Herman, for this deep-dive tactical workshop on all things Instagram. In this workshop, you’ll get hands-on opportunities to build out your own brand’s hashtag strategy, learn how to create Reels that convert, re-write your Instagram profile description to optimize it for clients, and so much more. Whether you’re still figuring out how to use Instagram strategically or you’ve been doing this for years, you’ll leave this session with significant improvements made to your Instagram account and actionable tasks to implement for increased performance and results.
Ditch the Boosting Blues: Master a Solid Facebook Ad Strategy with Amanda Robinson, The Digital Gal
AMANDA ROBINSON
Boosting Facebook posts is the precursor to creating ads that tap into your full potential. Are you ready to go beyond the boost and get hands-on with a strategy that beats boosting out of the water? Join us for an interactive workshop led by Amanda Robinson, The Digital Gal, where you’ll learn the ins and outs of creating a successful Facebook ad campaign from start to finish. Discover the essentials of audience targeting, ad creation, budgeting, and analyzing results as Amanda shares her expert knowledge and industry secrets. By the end of this engaging workshop, you’ll be confidently equipped to craft compelling Facebook ad campaigns that drive results and boost your business. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from a renowned Facebook ads expert and transform your marketing strategy!
Understanding & Using Google Analytics 4
CHRIS MERCER
Ever wonder if you’re using Google Analytics 4 correctly? Confused as to how it works? How do you what questions you’re supposed to ask it? How do you know what those reports are telling you? After this workshop you’ll know how to properly create, configure, and use your Google Analytics 4. From understanding what events are important to collect (and why) to building reports that are designed to answer questions quickly, you’ll discover a whole new way to unlock this incredible tool.
Level up your AI Game: hands-on prompting workshop
REBECCA EMERY
In just a few short months, the methods for using generative AI and prompting tools like ChatGPT have undergone significant changes. From simple one-shot mega-prompts to more complex and contextual approaches, these changes have enabled game-changing results for business and marketing professionals. Join us for the “Leveling up your AI Game” workshop to explore the latest techniques and nuances for multimodal prompting, including generating text in your brand tone and voice, prompting image to text, text to image, video, and audio. Discover how to generate superior content through new approaches to prompt structuring then bring it all together with workflows and automation for an added boost. We’ll also cover some of the newest AI features, tools, plugins, browser extensions, plus the ability to analyze web links, PDFs and data in CSVs using AI. Through practical exercises and learning, you’ll have the opportunity to generate compelling content and level up with advanced prompting, integration and automation for AI-powered acceleration.
Recommended: WiFi enabled Laptop or tablet running ChatGPT Plus 4 (account required) and Chrome or Microsoft Edge Browser with Bing (account required). Other software will be downloaded prior to exercises. A printed workbook will be provided for all attendees to take notes and follow along during the hands-on workshop exercises.
PPC Auditing 101: Evaluating Your Campaign Through In-Depth Analysis
BROOKE OSMUNDSON
In this workshop, we’ve delve into the fundamental structure of a PPC audit, demystifying the process and empowering you to extract valuable insights from campaigns.
Learn to navigate the wealth of data at your disposal, identify key performance indicators (KPIs), and set clear objectives and expectations for an audit. By focusing on what truly matters, you’ll streamline your efforts and maximize the impact of your analysis.
Whether you were at AOC 2023 or not, you definitely don’t want to miss AOC 2024!
While we haven’t yet announced the date for 2024, you can be sure that it’s definitely happening! If you’re interested in attending or learning more, sign up for our email newsletter today and take advantage of the best prices and earliest bird discounts!
VIDEO
Want to get a sense of the “vibe” of AOC? Or perhaps you just want to see if you made one of our sizzle reels? Check out these highlights from some of our recent conferences.
SPONSORS
We couldn’t do it without our sponsors. These are the local and national companies that have the tools and solutions that will help your business grow.
